Table of Contents

2000

Volume Five, Number 4
    

Symposium in Progress

Information & Public Organizations - A Brave New World?

Karen Mossberger, Editor

1. Introduction: Information & Public Organizations - A Brave New World?
   Karen Mossberger, Editor

   What topic could be more appropriate for an electronic journal on public administration and management than the use of information (including information technology)? This issue of Public Administration and Management: An Interactive Journal is organized as a symposium on Information and Public Organizations.
      

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2. Fostering Open-Source Research Via a World Wide Web System
   Charles M. Schweik, Ph.D., & J. Morgan Grove, Ph.D.

   In recent years we have witnessed the incredibly productive power of "open-source" programming where independent software developers freely share their source code and collaborate globally over the Internet. While components of the Internet (e.g., email, FTP, etc.) have long been used as mechanisms for research collaboration, it has only been recently – since the development of the web – that the Internet as a system for research collaboration has been available to non-technical users. Even so, the free exchange of research data and products, similar to the open-source sharing of programs is still quite limited. This paper explores the question of how a web system might enhance and encourage open source modeling of land cover change and, in general, "open-source research." We discuss the concept of open-source and the creative and productive potential of open-source collaboration. We describe the foundations of open-source programming, largely in the context of Linux, and summarize lessons learned from these open-source efforts. Finally, we examine how these lessons might be applied in an open-source research setting by describing our initial efforts to establish a web system to encourage and foster open-source research and modeling of complex human-environment systems.

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3. The MPA And Distance Education: A Story As A Tool Of Engagement
   Robert A. Schuhmann, R. McGreggor Cawley, Richard T. Green, & Alan Schenker

   Whether excited by the prospect or not, academics realize that general interest in technology-based distance education is rapidly increasing – a fact which is particularly true for public administration and public policy programs (see, for example, Ebdon, 1999). According to the U.S. Department of Education (1997), as of fall 1995, a third of higher education institutions offered distance education and another quarter planned to offer such courses in the next three years (p. iii). In academic year 1994-1995, approximately 753,640 students were enrolled in an estimated 25,730 distance education courses offered by higher education institutions. Of those, public four-year institutions offered 45 percent, public two-year institutions offered 39 percent, and private four-year institutions offered 16 percent (pp. iii-iv). Degrees and course offerings range from business, to nursing, to social science. Graduate programs in public administration have not escaped the pressure.

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4. Public Information in Government Organizations: A Review and Curriculum Outline of External Relations in Public Administration
   Mordecai Lee, Ph.D.

   External relations in public administration encompasses the use of information outside the boundaries of a government agency to accomplish administrative purposes. It is integral to the conduct of public administration, whether as a specialized activity or as an approach held by the agency's leadership. However, the contemporary curriculum in public administration education pays little attention to external relations. With the rapid expansion of the digital age and the information explosion, the importance of managing informational relationships in the 21st century is certain to increase. Public administration practitioners and educators need to broaden their scope of attention to embrace external relations.

   External relations can accomplish many different management goals and can be planned to reach specific audiences. Once a government manager has analyzed an external relations challenge and identified the purpose and audience involved, then the techniques for such an effort can be selected from standard menus available to the practitioner.

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Book Review

5. NetPolicy.Com: Public Agenda for a Digital World by Leslie David Simon
   Lisa J. Dotterweich
      

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Single Articles

6. Perception Management: An Active Strategy For Marketing And Delivering Academic Excellence, Business Sophistication, And Communication Successes
   Ronald J. Stupak, Ph.D.

   Too many liberal arts colleges continue to spend too much time looking inward, planning too much from memory rather than from imagination, suffer from faculty hubris and indifference, and do not demonstrate the market sophistication needed to be viable and visible, let alone excellent, in the changed economic world of the past decade. Therefore, in order to accentuate the contextual anchors, communication techniques, practical realities, benchmark comparabilities, sophisticated interdependence, marketing concepts, and mutual accountability required to move beyond mere survival, this article will describe, develop, and delineate “perception management” as a strategic design and action agenda for turning passive reactions into proactive realities at liberal arts colleges in particular and the public sector in general.   

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